Earth Day 2026
In recognition of EARTH DAY, 2026, we have curated a group of video interviews and stories from the ArtSpeak archives with impactful people in the arts, who help raise awareness and offer solutions for CLIMATE CHANGE and SEA LEVEL RISE, which are particularly threatening to Miami and South Florida.
Beginning March, 2020, some of the videos below were recorded via Zoom. Click on any video link (below the images). You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.
Underwater with Dr. Shelby Thomas
Dr. SHELBY THOMAS, PhD (b.1996) is the CEO & Founder of Ocean Rescue Alliance International (OCAI). Dr. Thomas is an ocean solutionist who specializes in marine conservation and restoration.
Multi-Talented Artist Carlos Betancourt
CARLOS BETANCOURT (b. 1966) is a multi-disciplinary artist. His artwork is part of public collections such as the Smithsonian’ National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas; New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana; Palm Springs Art Museum, California; Bass Museum of Art, Florida; Perez Art Museum Miami, Florida; and Museo de Arte Ponde, Puerto Rico. A major recent Betancourt project is the Miami Reef Star, a prototype for the artists’ contribution to the Reef Line, an underwater installation that will span 90 feet in diameter beneath the waters of Miami Beach. Visible from airplanes, this piece showcases a powerful blend of artistic vision and environmental stewardship, redefining creativity and conservation.
Beatriz Chachamovits: Environmental Artist
BEATRIZ CHACHAMOVITS is an environmental artist and educator from São Paulo, Brazil, living and working in Miami, Florida. Her work renders tangible the decline of the coral reef ecosystems, and the role played by humans in it. Her intention is to share the majestic beauty of at-risk marine ecologies as well as the appalling rate of their destruction.
Xavier Cortada: A Socially Engaged Artist in 2025
Miami’s pioneer eco-artist, XAVIER CORTADA, has created more than 150 public artworks, installations, and collaborative murals across six continents. The Florida Artists Hall of Fame inductee is the only artist to create work at both of the Earth’s poles.
Ombretta Agro’ Andruff: Curator and Environmental Activist
An Italian-born, Miami-based curator and environmental activist, OMBRETTA AGRÓ ANDRUFF brings more than twenty years of curatorial expertise with an international practice across non-profit institutions, commercial galleries, and art advisory pursuits with private clients.
Brandon Clarke: Architect + Artist
BRANDON CLARKE is an architect / designer + artist based in the Miami area. His most recent exhibition at Green Space Miami utilizes living moss and other plants and mixed-media on the backs of stretched canvases to express concern with the lack of shade in impoverished communities.
Tina Spiro: Making Waves in Miami & Jamaica
From studios in Jamaica and Miami, dynamic artist TINA SPIRO has been making large scale paintings that present her concerns with climate change and sea level rise.
Deep Bones Opening Ceremony, “O Breaker of Bones,” 2011, Freight + Volume Gallery, NYC. Photo: Adam Ryder.
Jay Critchley: Performance Artist, Activist
JAY CRITCHLEY’s visual, conceptual and performance work and environmental activism have traversed the globe, showing and/or performing in Argentina, Japan, England, Holland, Germany, Columbia and the United States. He was featured in the LOGO channel’s “Ptown Diaries”, and interviewed by BBC/UK. His solo exhibition at Freight + Volume Gallery in Chelsea, New York City received exciting reviews from the New York Times, The New Yorker and the Village Voice.
Artivist Leonor Anthony: Arctic Queen
LEONOR ANTHONY is a multi-disciplinary, Cuban-American artist and activist based in Miami. She is an accredited scholar, artist, photographer and published author. Leonor is well-known for her courageous use of materials and by creating works that invoke controversial issues. Anthony co-authored “Sounds of Freedom” with photographer Roberto Polillo. In October 2022, Anthony was awarded The Arctic Circle Fellowship and sailed the waters around the North Pole with 27 Artists and scientists in an unequaled and exclusive ecological Artist Residency.
